Courtesy of Counter records
Spokes — People Like People Like You (Counter, 2009)
Shakespeare once said: “Brevity is the soul of wit” (ie don’t waffle on). And, while no one ever seems to disagree with him, the Manchester orchestral-pop group, Spokes, have taken this statement to its logical extreme.
Their five-song, 35-minute debut mini-album, People Like People Like You, contains only a smattering of lyrics. This leaves their vast, arcing, violin-driven song structures to do the majority of the legwork.
The listener has to wait a while to hear the album’s first (and indeed, last) vocals, in the song Precursor. The title of the next song, Sometimes Words are too Slow, perhaps best summarises their philosophy.
PLPLY is a layered and heavily emotive work, bridging the gap between classical and pop. A casual listener may criticise the group for too much shoe-gazing and not enough variety. But casual listeners also probably shouldn’t spend too long away from their NME-intravenous-drip, lest they get any of those dangerous opinions of their own.
Even though Spokes could be compared to other soundscapists, Sigur Rós and Ólafur Arnalds, PLPLY doesn’t quite share their relative digestibility and, thus, isn’t going to bother many daytime radio playlists (not that this is any sort of indictment, mind).
This said, the record seems somehow more accessible than their closest confrères, Yndi Halda. Rather than merely taking on ostinatoes and adding more instruments until a bed-wetting crescendo is reached (as Yndi Halda do but with some verve, it must be added), Spokes prefer an elongated form of the traditional pop structure.
Encouragingly, the band’s latest song, Torn Up in Praise, found on Counter Records’ new sampler, Strike! (which you can, and should, buy here), is even more cohesive and accessible than PLPLY.
The only thing I’m left pondering is whether, considering the band speak very little, their name is self-referentially ironic?
Hits are for squares? 